Eastwood was set to receive SAG’s Life Achievement Award. He also was to present the prize for outstanding performance by an actress.

Michael Douglas was set to present this year’s life achievement to Karl Malden, his onetime co-star in the ABC cop show “The Streets of San Francisco.”

Unlike the Oscars, SAG, the union of Hollywood performers, hands out prizes for individual performances as well as the work of the entire ensemble, and does not have a best-picture category.

All eyes last night were on how well “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” would do in the ensemble cast and screenwriting categories.

The third installment of the J.R.R. Tolkien fantasy series is tipped to win big at the Oscars, having already grabbed four top Golden Globe awards and been named best picture by scores of critics.

The SAG Awards were given out one day after the Writers Guild of America named its favorite screenwriters.

The group gave the prizes to Sofia Coppola for “Lost in Translation” and Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman for “American Splendor.”

This year, the Oscars, usually given out in March, are being presented several weeks earlier.

And, for the very first time, there will be a short delay in the Oscar broadcast to allow time for censors to bleep any obscene language or behavior – a maneuver that came about as a result of the Janet Jackson-Super Bowl flap.